


Winter Magic

by LadySilviana



Series: Seasons of Love [2]
Category: The Magicians (TV), The Magicians - Lev Grossman
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Magic, Magic-Users, Snow, Snowball Fight, Spells & Enchantments, Winter, Winter at Brakebills, queliot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-02-14 06:29:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13001847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadySilviana/pseuds/LadySilviana
Summary: Quentin, Eliot and company decide to decorate the Cottage for the winter holidays! Basically, light hearted fun :)





	Winter Magic

**Author's Note:**

> Going along with the seasonal theme for this pair, this is part two of what is now a mini fic series- featuring winter! It is based on the show but I like to pretend they had more time at Brakebills before going to Fillory.
> 
> I do not own the Magicians, etc etc.

Winter was the best time of year to be eloquently fashionable and, as such, it was Eliot’s favourite season. He was not crazy about the cold of course, but it did give him a grand excuse of rotating through his various trench coats, scarves and form flattering cashmere sweaters. Eliot thrived on colour combinations, elegance, and layers of complimenting fabrics. Winter prompted layers- and therefore, refinement. Summer on the other hand... well one could only ever look moderately refined in the sweltering heat, even in the best of clothes.

Eliot was humming an indistinct little tune while wrapping a silvery grey scarf with a black paisley pattern loosely around his neck in front of his wardrobe mirror. Behind him, Quentin was reflected sprawled on the bed on his stomach, legs lifted in the air and crossed at the ankles. The younger man was reading a spell book, his hair falling forward and hiding his face. The window of the room was plastered with snow from the outside, heavy white snowflakes piling up high against the glass.

Eliot did a few twists from side to side, inspecting his reflection before wrinkling his nose and reaching within the wardrobe to grab a different cardigan, replacing the current grey one with a deep, royal purple. Satisfied with the transition, he then chose the coat, a dark grey with a silk purple lining that matched the cardigan. The soft leather gloves and knee high boots completed the look with an accent of black and Eliot smirked contently to himself before swirling around and facing Quentin.

“TADA!” He spread his arms wide and took a bow when Quentin looked up. “Now, tell me just how marvellous I look.”

Quentin gave him a wide grin of approval before sitting up on the bed.

“More marvellous than any king, dead or alive,” the younger man said and Eliot beamed, coming over to his lover and resting his gloved hands on Quentin’s shoulders. Quentin wrapped his arms around Eliot’s waist and looked up at the tall man with sparkling admiration.

“However, Eliot, I do think you know how I feel about your clothes,” he said slyly.

“And how is that?” Eliot quirked an eyebrow.

“That you look better without them.”

Quentin was rewarded with Eliot’s deep, booming laughter and a press of hot lips to his forehead.

“Ah, spoken truly, Quentin. However, even the best presents must come wrapped. It makes the gratification of opening them so much more profound.”

“If you let me unwrap you now you will see that there is plenty of profound gratification to go around.”

“Oh hush you,” Eliot pushed Quentin playfully away and extracted himself from their embrace. “I only just got dressed. Do let me prance around a little.”

“Sure, ok,” Quentin stood up and stretched, leaning over to grab a plain black hoodie from a chair and pulling it over his head. His garb may not have been anywhere as elegant as Eliot’s, but Quentin did manage to pull off a successful self-warming spell to infuse the sweater with, thus eliminating the need to put on further layers. Quentin hated layers. They made him hot and uncomfortable.

“Though I am not sure why you got so dressed up to begin with. We are just going outside to decorate the Cottage.”

“Yes, but you never know what will happen after,” Eliot retorted. “It is best to be prepared for any occasion. Now- shall we?” He motioned to the door.

Quentin sighed in resignation and followed Eliot out and down the staircase to the Cottage door. The two men took a moment to chant a small incantation to ward wetness from their boots before heading outside. Weatherproof was never really weatherproof unless it was enchanted.

The door of the Cottage opened outwards to a flurry of snowflakes and the light of the late afternoon sun. The air outside was brisk and cool, yet not unpleasant, the landscape misted in opalescent snow that made the scene look in truth like a winter wonderland.

No sooner had Eliot and Quentin stepped out into the snowy yard, than they were bombarded with an artillery of magic snowballs. Eliot was quick to react, crossing his arms in front of his face and throwing up a magic shield just in time to deflect the onslaught of snowballs. Quentin wasn’t quite so lucky and was pelted hard from head to foot, the force of the enchanted globes of snow pushing him off his feet and unto the snow covered ground.

“Ooooow, guys- the fuck,” Quentin moaned.

The thing about magic snowballs was- they were hard.

Quentin’s downfall was met with a cheery bout of laughter.

“What a dork!” Kady was practically doubled over, clenching her sides. She had on her usual leather jacket, layered over a hoodie and a toque hat. She never did get the hang of the warming enchantment.

Beside her, Margo, dressed in an adorable tan parka, scowled with slight disappointment.

“Urgh, it’s just Q! Are you surprised we manged to catch him off guard?” She said with exasperation. “It was Eliot that was supposed to go down.”

Eliot straightened his jacket and gave her a wicked smile. Around him clumps of snow began to hover in the air, collecting themselves into round, floating spheres.

“In your dreams, bitch,” Eliot said with a tinge of playful nastiness in his tone. “Daddy isn’t going down anywhere dressed like this.” With a flick of his gloved hands the snowballs he just formed flew full speed at Margo and Kady, who barely had time to react.

“Oh shit! Duck, duck, duck!” Kady shouted. Margo squealed and ducked behind Kady, who, like Eliot earlier, crossed her arms and threw up a shield. It wasn’t as successful as Eliot’s, as a few snowballs got through before the defence went up and the two girls got clouted on the shoulders.

“Owww, owww! Ok, Eliot, truce!” Margo yelled.

“Sure thing, love, just admit that I am the king!” Eliot kept the snowballs coming, his telekinesis allowing him to form and launch them at incredible speeds.

“Argh, do it Margo!” Kady was buckling under the weight of the invisible shield as more and more snowballs collided with it. “I can’t keep this up much longer.”

“Ok, ok! Fine! You are the king, Eliot!” Margo yelled from behind Kady. “Happy now?”

Eliot let the rest of the snowballs drop harmlessly to the ground.

“Yes, quite.” He leaned over and proffered a hand to Quentin, pulling the snow-covered young man up from the ground.

“Aight, now that you all are done being idiots, maybe we can get on with the decorating?” It was Penny. The traveller had appeared by the Cottage at some point during the ongoing confrontation.

The man was definitely not dressed to accommodate the weather, sporting only his usual long jacket and a partially opened button down. He was rubbing his hands furtively against one another for warmth. Clearly, Penny hadn’t gotten the hang of the warming spell either. Or perhaps he just couldn’t be bothered.

“Forget to grab a sweater, Penny?” Quentin smirked.

“Fuck off, nerd.”

“That’s a very warm nerd to you, that managed to actually get the hang of Whitaker’s Warming Wards,” Quentin retorted. A couple of months ago, he would have been too intimidated by the robust traveller to be quite this cocky, but being around Eliot rubbed off on him. Or- as Penny liked to put bluntly- he had actually managed to grow a backbone.

“Oh. My. God. Guys, shut up!” Margo groaned.

“Yeah, seriously. Let’s get started on this thing,” Kady said and then looked around. “Hey wait a second- where is Alice with all the shit?”

Just then the front door of the Cottage flew open once more and Alice stumbled out to join them, her head barely visible behind the stack of boxes in her arms. She nearly tripped on the threshold, but Quentin and Eliot caught and steadied her, each one grabbing a box to relieve the blonde girl.

“Thanks, guys,” Alice blew a strand of hair from her face, and shifting the weight of the remaining box to one hand, reached to straighten her glasses with the other. No one could call out Alice Quinn for coming ill prepared for the weather. The girl was bundled head to foot in winter gear, a black parka and white hat, scarf and mittens that looked like they were likely knitted by her grandmother. Each individual layer of clothing was also enchanted with Whitaker’s Warming Wards. Alice hated being cold and could care less about the aesthetic value of style.

“Sorry, it took forever to find these in the attic behind all the other junk,” Alice said as everyone huddled around her and the boxes were opened. Inside were magical equivalents of Christmas lights: translucent orbs of an unknown iridescent material strung along several long feet of beautifully crafted golden chain.

“Captured Fairy essence,” Alice explained. “We must get them up in time to catch the rays of the ascending moon, otherwise they wont glow.”

“Alright, so what do we do here?” Penny began to lift the contraption out of one of the boxes, examining the delicate looking orbs.

Alice fumbled around inside her coat pocket and brought out a piece of paper and stared at it for a long moment.

“Uhmm, it seems easy enough,” she nodded to herself. “The runes will be the hardest part, but the chant is easy enough. Ok, so we’ll have to repeat the steps for each garland, but it will take fifteen-twenty minutes at most. Kady, Penny, Eliot and Margo- you guys will hold the garlands stretched out between the four of you. Quentin and I will do the runes and the chant.”

Following orders, the group separated. While the other four carefully unravelled the chain-link garlands of fairy orbs, Alice and Quentin went off to the side and, finding adequately pointy tree branches on the ground, began to chart a succession of runes upon the snow. When they were done that, they looked over the incantation- a simple affair in ancient Gaelic.

“Ready?” Alice asked the others when her and Quentin were done the preparations.

“Ready,” everyone chanted back.

Linking hands and nodding to each other, Quentin and Alice pointed to the first garland of orbs being held up by the other four. Despite its simplicity, it still took the two of them two attempts to pronounce the incantation right, but when they did the golden chain with its shiny orbs lifted into the air with slow grace. The group gasped in unison when the length of the chain began to expand, growing to at least a hundred feet.

“Alright, Eliot- your go,” Alice said and Eliot nodded back at her, grasping the magical garland with his mind and floating the gently tinkling chain up to the Cottage roof, where it began to fasten itself around the tiles and wrapping in lazy circles around its parameter. When the garland with its dangling orbs was settled in place, Eliot beamed in satisfaction.

“Done. Next!” He called.

The group repeated the process two more times, each time twining the fairy garlands around and around the Cottage until the entire building was wrapped in crisscrossed golden chains and tiny, crystalline orbs.

When the job was done, it was nearly dark out, the shadows falling deep along the concave piles of snow.

The six students stood back and admired their work.

“Now what?” Kady asked, coming over to Penny and wrapping her arms around his waist. The traveller slung one arm around her shoulders.

“Now we wait until the moon comes up over there,” Alice pointed behind them. “Which should be in about... three... two... one!”

It was a full moon and, as though beckoned precisely by Alice alone, it crawled out from behind the tree line to grace the navy-blue sky of a winter’s evening. Its pale light shone upon the Cottage and, in response, the orbs on the fairy garlands came alive with a luminous blaze. A dazzling array of purples, blues, greens and pinks sparkled forth in glittering perfection, lighting a dancing trail up around the Cottage building. Unlike the electrical lights of the modern world, these lights flickered warmly, as though each small orb in fact held an individual tiny flame that twinkled and shone gaily within its confines. The little lights pulsed with an enchanted life of their own, reflecting off the white snow on the ground, colouring it with its multitude of fluorescent hues.

The students were momentarily mesmerized.

“Ok, so I am impressed,” Margo said, crossing her arms under her chest. “But you didn’t hear me say that.”

Eliot had reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette, lighting it.

Quentin came up behind him and slipped a hand into the man’s grey jacket, feeling the cool inside lining of purple silk. Eliot looked down and smiled, reaching his own gloved hand into his pocket and wrapping his fingers around Quentin’s, giving them a soft squeeze. Around them, large snow flakes began to drift once more from the darkened sky. The white fluffs settled on the boys’ shoulders and dark hair, catching the light of the glowing fairy orbs as they did so, making it appear as though the two were adorned in sparkling little jewels.

“Now you really do look like a king,” Quentin smiled up at Eliot, reaching up to graze a snowflake glowing on the other’s brow.

“Well, the king demands a kiss,” Eliot murmured, pulling Quentin in against him and throwing his cigarette into the snow.

The king bent down his head and the glowing snowflakes caught and melted between their merged lips.


End file.
